In this chapter we continue our search for God, and for a deeper knowledge of Him. It is my prayer that these thrilling nuggets of truth will contribute to your secret place experience, and to your comprehension of God.
Our Tender & Compassionate God
Is your God always looking for reasons to keep you out of heaven? Is your God a harsh, unfeeling, and judgmental taskmaster who has a low tolerance level for the weak, the vacillating, and the erring?
If so, then I need to respectfully share with you that this simply is not the God who is revealed in Scripture!
The following incredibly amazing truths persuade me that God is a wonderfully kind and gracious Father, and that He is One who has an insatiable longing, not only to come near to us, but even to live in us.
"When we are in terror of God, and overwhelmed with the thought of His glory and majesty, the Father points us to Christ as His representative. What you see revealed in Jesus, of tenderness, compassion, and love, is the reflection of the attributes of the Father. Christ represents the Sovereign of the universe as a God of love." (HP18.3)
"We need to educate and train the mind so that we shall have an intelligent faith, and have an understanding friendship with Jesus. Unless we continually cherish friendship between God and our souls, we shall separate from Him, and walk apart from Him. If we have fellowship with Him, we must ever set the Lord before us, and treat Him as an honored Friend, giving Him the first place in our affections." (SD27.4)
"God would not have His children, for whom so great a salvation has been provided, act as though He were a hard, exacting taskmaster. He is their best friend, and when they worship Him, He expects to be with them to bless and comfort them and fill their hearts with joy and love." (TMK263.3)
God "is attractive. He is full of love, mercy, and compassion. He proposes to be our friend, to walk with us through all the rough pathways of life. He says to us, I am the Lord thy God; walk with Me, and I will fill thy path with light." (LHU98.3)
This is the God who invites us to dwell with Him in the secret place. This is the God who gave us the ultimate demonstration of His love on a very cruel cross. This is the God whose infinite grace will be the subject of our earnest study for all of eternity.
Incredibly Amazing Grace
One of the best ways to get to know God is to come to an understanding of His grace - that being the altogether unmerited kindness that He pours out in unlimited measure upon His altogether undeserving children. Every facet of God’s unfathomable grace speaks to us of a character that shines infinitely brighter than a trillion suns.
To illustrate just a few of the facets of God’s grace, let us consider the following incredibly amazing truths. These truths highlight just a few of the incredibly amazing wonders that characterize our incredibly amazing God.
Please take note that each of these truths is dealt with in greater depth in later chapters.
Incredibly Amazing Truth #1: From the moment that you placed your faith in Jesus, (a) God cleared you of all guilt, and (b) He considered the righteousness of Jesus as though it were your own.
"The moment the sinner believes in Christ, he stands in the sight of God uncondemned; for the righteousness of Christ is His: Christ's perfect obedience is imputed to him." (FE429.3)
Incredibly Amazing Truth #2: In that moment when you placed your faith in Jesus, God made a special announcement to the entire universe to the effect that He is willing to accept you as though you are righteous and as though you always have been righteous.
"The great work that is wrought for the sinner who is spotted and stained by evil is the work of justification. By Him who speaketh truth he is declared righteous. The Lord imputes unto the believer the righteousness of Christ and pronounces him righteous before the universe. He transfers his sins to Jesus, the sinner's representative, substitute, and surety. Upon Christ He lays the iniquity of every soul that believeth." (1SM392.2 - also see OHC48.5)
Incredibly Amazing Truth #3: From the moment that you placed your faith for salvation in the righteousness of Jesus alone, and you accepted that you have no saving righteousness or merit of your own, God accepted you as His son or daughter, as His heir, and as a member of His royal family.
"Those who accept Christ as their personal Saviour are not left as orphans, to bear the trials of life alone. He receives them as members of the heavenly family; He bids them call His Father their Father." (DA327.2)
"For all who believe in Christ a victory WAS GAINED. They would no longer be counted as sinners, sons of rebellion, but as sons of God, through their acceptance of the righteousness of Christ." (ST, June 17, 1897 par. 12)
"Those who thus accept of Christ are looked upon by God, not as they are in Adam, but as they are in Jesus Christ, as the sons and daughters of God. The Lord will no more cast off the humblest, lowliest believer in Jesus than he will demolish his throne. WE ARE ACCEPTED in the Beloved. WE ARE members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ." (ST, June 6, 1895 par. 4)
"Rejoice that YOU ARE one with God, one with Christ, and with the whole family of heaven." (DA493.3)
Incredibly Amazing Truth #4: Jesus loves you so much that He endured untold shame and infinite pain, not only to secure your pardon, not only to take away your sins and to give you His righteousness, but that He may one day have the pleasure and the joy of sharing His throne with you.
Jesus "asks for His people not only pardon and justification, full and complete, but a share in His glory and a seat upon His throne." (FLB206.8)
What a God we serve! What incredibly amazing grace!
In the light of the above, may I humbly remind you that you are not to think of yourself as a forgiven culprit who has been pardoned and released from captivity, or as one who is looked upon with suspicion and mistrust by the heavenly host. Right now, dear fellow believer, you are a child of the King of the universe, you are an heir to God’s kingdom, you are of the Royal bloodline, you are a sibling of Jesus, and every human ever born is your brother or sister.
"By His appointment [the Father] has placed at His altar an Advocate clothed with our nature. As our Intercessor, His office work is to introduce us to God as His sons and daughters." (7ABC488.2)
Thus you may rejoice in the fact that right now your sins are all washed away, God has accepted you as though you are sinless, and you are covered with the perfect robe of Jesus’ righteousness.
"Though guilty, [you are] looked upon as innocent." (12MR416.1)
More than this, you may have confidence in the fact that right now your name is engraved on the front door of your own private mansion in heaven – and right now the royal throne awaits your arrival.
And it is all by grace (the unmerited favor of God).
"See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such WE ARE. Beloved, now WE ARE children of God." (1 John 3:1-2)
